


Here For You

by Pronunciation_Hermy_One



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:47:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21639073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pronunciation_Hermy_One/pseuds/Pronunciation_Hermy_One
Summary: Change is scary, being alone is scarier. Harry wants to make sure Teddy knows he’s never alone.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 13





	Here For You

**Author's Note:**

> This was written during a particularly potent bout of insomnia. I spend my days it seems fighting for children, the lost, the forgotten, the neglected and abused. Most of the time the “alone” is their biggest fear. Everyone deserves a Harry.
> 
> I own nothing of the HP universe and am simply grateful for this world in which to play. 
> 
> This is un-beta’d and any mistakes are my own. Giant thanks to my person, frumpologist, for the beautiful graphic. Love you yang to my yin, Prude to my Nun.

They’ve been standing at the station for only ten minutes when the train pulls up, slowly chugging to a stop. Ginny squeezes his arm gently and he smiles, patting her hand. 

“I’ve missed them,” she whispers, standing on her tiptoes and pressing a kiss to the side of his chin. 

He laughs, looking down toward her and kissing her nose. “As have I.”

The smoke dissipates as the train grinds to a halt before them. The whistle blows and the doors creak open. Parents are standing shoulder to shoulder, waiting with bated breath for their children to pour out of the train cars before them. 

“They’re here, mum!” Lily whispers, barely audible beneath the din of the train as she bounces up and down on the balls of her feet. Her hand is grasped tightly in Harry’s and their arms swing back and forth as she rocks in excitement. “They’re here!”

There’s a sudden rush of movement as the parents sigh a collective breath of relief and suddenly the platform is filled with students and trunks.

A cacophony of noise assaults him at once, but Harry smiles. No one is paying him any attention, for once. They’re too focused on the children rushing into their arms. Shouts of “mum” and “dad” fill the air with such exuberance that Harry’s eyes sting. 

“Softie.” Ginny nudges him playfully.

“Can’t help it,” he grumbles, wiping an eye with the back of his hand. 

“There they are!” Lily springs forward, releasing his hand as she rushes toward the children exiting the train car. “Come on, dad! 

Lily is a blur, darting between the legs of disembarking students and parents as she races to reach her brother. She gets to James first and nearly knocks him to the ground as she wraps her arms around his waist and squeals in excitement. “You’re home!”

James smiles, lifting her from the ground and twirling her in the air. “Got you something.” He ruffles her hair before handing her a chocolate frog. 

Wide eyes and a smile that lights her face leave Harry laughing as Lily begs Ginny to be allowed to eat it now. 

“Where’s Albus?” James scans the platform before meeting Harry’s eyes. 

“Home. He wasn’t feeling well this morning.”

James nods as Harry wraps his arms around him. “Let me take your trunk, Jamie.” He steps behind him to lift the trunk from the ground, sidestepping as people move all around them. 

“Dad—”

“Yeah, Jamie?”

“Can we— just stop a moment—”

Harry looks up suddenly, glancing around. “Where’s Teddy?”

James is chewing the inside of his cheek. “He won’t get off the train. Says he’s staying forever.”

Harry’s brows are knit together as Ginny comes up behind them. “What?”

“He won’t talk. Won’t leave. He’s just sitting there in our compartment, dad.”

Ginny’s hand is on his shoulder, a familiar weight of comfort. He follows her gaze as she glances toward the train. 

“I need to—”

“The children and I will wait.” She murmurs, taking hold of Lily’s hand with one of her own and James’ trunk with the other.

Harry sighs deeply as he walks toward the train. It feels strange to be standing on the Hogwarts Express once again. For years his relationship with the train had been one of conflicted emotions. The train was responsible for taking him to the only place he considered home each year. And by the same token, responsible for his departure from the same.

The corridor between each car is vacant in the wake of the mass exodus of the students. His footfalls echo, the sound bouncing through the carriage as he peers into each empty car as he passes them. And then he sees him. 

A mop of dishwater hair falls across his brow, his forehead resting atop arms crossed over knees bent and raised to his face. Harry surveys him for a moment before he comes to sit next to the young man before him. 

Teddy stiffens as Harry sits and places a hand on his shoulder. Harry can see the fight in his posture and runs a hand through his hair.

“I had a mixed relationship with this train, you know, Teddy.”

Silence greets him in return and so Harry continues softly. “In fact, I considered refusing to leave it on a number of occasions. Never more so than my fifth year, though.”

Teddy glances up then, his eyes watery through the lank brown fringe covering his face.

“Is that when Sirius—”

Harry nods. “The idea of another summer with the Dursleys was pretty unbearable.”

“Gran’s isn’t bad.”

“I know,” Harry chuckles. “But the idea of leaving Hogwarts can be pretty scary.” 

Teddy exhales sharply, sitting up. “I don’t want everything to change.”

“Change is very scary, too,” Harry agrees, nodding. 

“Jamie won’t be there.”

Harry nods. “He won’t be.”

“What if I’m not good enough?”

Harry smiles and pulls Teddy into his shoulder. “A question I’ve asked myself every day about every single thing.”

“You defeated Voldemort,” Teddy whispers. “Of course _you’re_ a great Auror.”

“Teddy, they’d never have accepted you if they didn’t think you capable.”

Teddy looks skeptical as he pulls away from Harry’s side to meet his eyes. “I know you get to help decide.”

“And you think I’d ever put my godson in harms way if he wasn’t capable?”

Teddy licks his lips and studies the window over Harry’s shoulder. “What if I’m not cut out for it? What if I want to do something else?”

“I’ll support you in anything you want, Teddy. You know that. Are you having second thoughts?”

Teddy is silent a moment more. “No. I want to be an Auror. I’m just scared. Aurors shouldn’t be scared.”

At this Harry laughs, truly and deeply. He sobers quickly at the look of irritation on Teddy’s face. “Sorry. I just… Teddy I’ve been so afraid of so many things in my life I couldn’t recount them all if I tried.”

“Voldemort,” Teddy grumbles. “Not every day things.”

“Wrong.” Harry shakes his head for emphasis, a smile toying at his lips. “I’m fact, of the list of things that’s frightened me, Voldemort isn’t even in the top ten.”

Teddy blinks rapidly, his hair flickering between colors as he searches Harry’s face. “Liar.”

“Nope.” Harry pops the ‘p’ so loudly it reverberates in the empty compartment. 

“Like what?”

“Like being a father. A good one. Being a godfather worthy of you. Being a husband. Your Aunt Ginny. Being worthy of being an Auror. What if I were only capable of defeating Voldemort because we’d been tied together? What if I were dead useless at everything else?”

Teddy is silent as Harry continues, rattling off his list of fears so quickly he surprises even himself. 

“Every time my friends were in danger fighting. Not for me, but for them. And summers. I hated going home every summer. It was… oh, Teddy. It was pretty awful.”

“And they still made you?”

Harry nods, a hand on Teddy’s back. “I had to.”

“So you’ve always faced your fears.” Teddy murmurs, picking at a rip in his jeans. “Alone. Harry Potter, hero of the Wizarding world.”

“I wasn’t alone.” Harry realizes he sounds confused when Teddy looks up at him.

“You were.”

“No. I wasn’t. Not ever.”

“You were.” Teddy insists, sitting up straighter. “You’ve told us the stories. It’s in all our books. In the final battle. And at your aunt and uncles. And—” 

“Teddy, if there’s one thing I’ve never been, it’s alone.” There’s an edge to Harry’s voice and he hopes Teddy understands how sincere he is. 

“Not once. Even when I thought I was. Do you remember what I said about the end of fifth year when I sat on this very train?”

Teddy nods silently, waiting. 

“I was debating waiting until September 1st when it would take me back to Hogwarts again. Do you know who was waiting for me when I got off this very train?”

“Who?” His voice is smaller than Harry has heard it in many years, the fragility and fear of the young man sitting before him evident. 

“Your mum and dad. And Madeye. The Weasleys— an entire group of people who loved me.” He pauses, his voice cracking. “People who fought by my side and gave their lives for me. For you. For all of us.”

“What if I can’t?” Teddy’s voice is quiet. “What if I’m not brave? What if I fail?”

“Then I’ll be with you.” Harry answers simply, wrapping an arm around Teddy’s shoulder. 

“I can’t promise what the future holds, Teddy. But I can promise I’ll be there. Unfailingly. Unquestioningly. _I_ will be there.”

They sit together in silence for another few moments before Teddy moves to stand, his eyes red rimmed and his voice thick. “Harry?”

“Yeah, Teddy?”

“Thanks for always being here on the last day of term. For picking me up. For dropping me off. For… all of it.”

“Always.” Harry nods. 

“Will you… can we walk out together?”

Harry smiles, standing to his feet and adjusting his glasses as he helps Teddy take his trunk down from overhead. “I didn’t think I’d have the chance to leave this train again for a last time, you know.”

“It’s still scary, even when you’re not alone.” Teddy whispers as they stand at the edge of the doorway, looking out toward Ginny, James and Lily waiting below. 

“It is.” Harry concedes, stepping onto the platform below and waiting for Teddy to join him. 

“But less.” Teddy declares softly as he steps forward and his feet connect with the ground below him. 

“Not alone is better.” Teddy grunts, lifting his trunk as he walks toward Ginny’s outstretched arms. 

Harry smiles over his head at Ginny before taking one last look back at the train, silent and motionless on the track behind him. “Not alone, is definitely better.”   
  
  
  
  


  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
